Movie Review: Divergent

Veronica Roth, in her Divergent trilogy divided people into five factions – Abnegation – the selfless, Candour – the honest, Erudite always thirsty for knowledge, Amity who were the peacekeepers and last but not the least, Dauntless – the crazy parkour practitioners who leaped off trains and buildings like it was an everyday thing. She further created the Divergent species whose qualities were convocation of two or more of these factions. The whole story is about finding what Divergent actually means and why being one is dangerous.

Beatrice/Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley), initially from Abnegation, is finally sixteen and must give the aptitude test which would help her choose which faction she belonged to. Her aptitude test results are inconclusive and she is told that she is Divergent. Wanting freedom for everything, from looking at her reflection in the mirror to talking freely at the dinner table and wanting to be able to experience the thrill she saw on the dauntless children’s faces every day, her badass side makes her choose Dauntless at the Choosing ceremony. Looking at her parents for the last time, she walks away to her new home. At the dauntless quarters, they undergo an initiation process which has rank cut offs. The first stage is more about physical strength and tactics where the initiates learn hand to hand combat, throwing knives and handling a gun. The other two were about identifying and overcoming fears through terrifying life-like simulations.

Amongst striving to survive initiation, our heroine must also figure out what being Divergent signifies and why they are murdered, as well as save the Abnegation from an attack before it’s too late. Four (Theo James), is her instructor, and in spite of his having Lady Gaga’s poker face initially, Tris manages to break through his sluggish charm, and they soon build up some chemistry. Jeanine Matthews, head of the Erudite (played by Kate Winslet), keeps popping in and is the real villain. More like a machine, she sees everything she can’t handle as a problem, and is hell bent on eradicating the roots of the problem, not caring about what she has to do in that process.

The movie felt a bit rushed as important scenes weren’t given enough importance, but otherwise it was gripping. All the actors keep you hooked on, as you wait for what will happen next. You’ll always be rooting for Tris, whether she is shy and simple as she was in the beginning, or striking and bold like towards the end! 

Yup, it’s definitely a onetime watch.

Kanksha :)

I believe everyone in this world has tea spoons of all these qualities. Saying the truth requires courage, bringing peace requires sacrifice and selflessness, and hunting knowledge could be synonymous to figuring out the truth. Throughout the trilogy, Roth throws in challenges, betrayals and (regrettably) deaths, reminding us once again why forgiving people is important. It’s a pretty good trilogy and you should probably read the books before watching the movie!

Expressions

Some people have impassive expressions – their cold stony demeanor and inscrutable countenance gives nothing away. But most others do not. Looking at the expressions engraved on people’s faces, examining the soft nose-scrunching to the right, the slight tug of war with their cheeks and subtle movement of their eyebrows is something that all of us do at some or the other point. But I think the most important part is played by the eyes.

The eyes, I believe, are the giveaway for most people. They unveil an array of emotions. If you’re paying attention, you’ll be able to identify the tremble of sadness disguised by a laugh, or perhaps the mirage of a smile pirouetting the eyelashes. But the twinkling of one’s eyes, predominantly seen when a person is amused is the most puzzling and intriguing of them all.

In fact, I could pen down various instances from today itself. I, along with another 3000+ students who go to the same coaching class, had a six hour test today. I’m sure the number of hours implies how important it was. Needless to say, the difficulty level was Pluto high (or maybe we just weren’t prepared enough) so by the end of it, we were drained out. One of my friend kept saying “Hi” to people at the top of her voice (to kill boredom) which earned her a few amused looks, another friend had blocked the way of people to ask them to say that their paper was bad just so she could get solace from that. The expressions on their face were a mixture of “I get where you come from” + “Hahahahahha :)” + “Are you demented?” But maybe that’s just what I think. What wouldn’t I do to know what’s going on in people’s heads when they look amused! Some people find another person’s misery amusing (which is pretty sardonic if you ask me), most people are sick of the jokes I crack up with, in awe of the lame level and yet secretly fascinated at the same time. Looking at a baby playing with balloons is enlightening and listening to a kid talk about typically impractical things like acquiring secret powers and the moon being a stalker is nice and diverting entertainment. 

The reasons for being amused are as many as the amount of different musical tunes one can compose in this world – a number so high, that we can render it endless.

The last expression I’ll talk about today is shock. There are two kinds of people that exist in this world – the people who can complete sentences… If you are a part of the previous category, you’ll have no issues figuring out what I mean by “There are two kinds of shocks – good and...” I’m only talking about the pleasant ones here. I had one today myself, something that shouldn't have happened since I pride myself in being non-sexist. A friend of mine, who is a guy, invited ten of us for dinner and cooked pasta for us on his own. Agreed, making pasta is quite easy, but the fact that he created a spread was amazing. It’s also funny when I randomly find out about various boys who make simple food or modify it and hardly any girls being interested in the same. 

Stereotypes are finally wiping out, the change is bizarre,

Abki baar, Modi Sarkaar.

Kanksha :)

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